Keeping the Retrospective Alive Agile Manchester May 2018 Confidential - do not distribute
Who Am I? Graduated in 2011 with a Masters in Mathematics • from University of Birmingham. Joined the T echnology Leadership graduate • scheme at T esco where I became part of their Agile T ransformation programme as an Agile Coach. April 2016, joined Expedia, within Hotels.com as an • Agile Lead, starting as acting Scrum Master for three teams, and have recently moved to focus on leading org wide agility. In my spare time I enjoy singing, cooking, long walks • with my dog and travelling the world! 2 Confidential - do not distribute
What is a retrospective? 3 Confidential - do not distribute
“At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.” Principle behind the Agile Manifesto 4 Confidential - do not distribute
Where does it all go wrong? 5 Confidential - do not distribute
It is always No magic spell can the same fix this mess, what’s conversation… the point? It’s so sad, people Retros are so just argue boring! all the time I just don’t like talking 6
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” The Lorax 7 Confidential - do not distribute
How do we make these more… Engaging? Valuable? Fun? 8 Confidential - do not distribute
General Rules • Set the scene o Review previous commitments • Gather Data o One idea per post it note • Generate Insights o The team can ‘Mango’ if someone is talking for too long, or has gone off on a tangent o Everyone participates 9 Confidential - do not distribute
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General Rules • Set the scene o Review previous commitments • Gather Data o One idea per post it note • Generate Insights o The team can ‘Mango’ if someone is talking for too long, or has gone off on a tangent o Everyone participates • Decide what to do o Capture commitments and make them visible in your team area with clear ownership • Close the retro 11 Confidential - do not distribute
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men” Willy Wonka 12 Confidential - do not distribute
Brain Energisers Fun, short team building activities to get teams talking and engaged. 13 Confidential - do not distribute
Fruit Face 1. Give everyone a piece of fruit with a skin and a pen 2. Ask them to draw on a face, representing how they are currently feeling 3. Compare the works of art and ask people to give context to their emotions 14 Confidential - do not distribute
Marshmallow Challenge 1. In 15mins build a freestanding tower as tall as you can out of spaghetti 2. A marshmallow must be placed on the top. 3. You have 1m of tape and 1m of string to help. 15 Confidential - do not distribute
Who Said? ? 1. Write down recent quotes from your team and keep a copy of who said it. 2. Read out the quote, and ask the team to vote on ‘who said it’. 16 Confidential - do not distribute
“The past can hurt. But the way I see it you can either run from it or learn from it” Rafiki 17 Confidential - do not distribute
Classic Asking the same questions in a varied way! 18 Confidential - do not distribute
Football Retro • What has scored us a goal? • Where did we concede penalties? • What substitutions could we have made? 19 Confidential - do not distribute
Sunshine & Rain • One thing I think is sunny… • One thing which feels like a dark cloud • What impact does it have? • How can we change the weather forecast? 20 Confidential - do not distribute
Go For a Walk • Find a partner you don’t usually work with • Grab pen and post it notes • Go for a walk and discuss o What was successful? o What stopped us from succeeding? 21 Confidential - do not distribute
“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy” Albus Dumbedore 22 Confidential - do not distribute
Emotive When there is tension in the team, an emotive retro will help the team understand how others are feeling, and create a sense of empathy 23 Confidential - do not distribute
Celebrity Faces 1.Stick up photos around the room of a celebrities face in various expressions. 2.Add post-it notes, capturing how recent events have made them feel 24 Confidential - do not distribute
Happy Surprised Confused Angry Sad 25
If I Were You 1. Write everybody names on a post it note, fold it up and put it in a bowl 2. Each team member picks out a name 3.Act and speak as if you are that person 26 Confidential - do not distribute
“You and I are a team. Nothing is more important than our friendship.” Mike Wazowski 27 Confidential - do not distribute
New Members When you have a change in team members and want to get to know one another 28 Confidential - do not distribute
Smarty Pants 1.Place a large packet of smarties into a bowl 2.Ask someone in the team to pick a sweet out of the bowl (with their eyes closed!) and answer a question according to the colour 3.Try to get each person to answer every question! 29 Confidential - do not distribute
Smarty Pants Questions • Red – What has gone well this sprint? • Orange – What hasn’t gone well this sprint? • Yellow – What would you change about the team? • Green – Where is your favourite holiday destination? • Blue – What is your favourite film? • Violet – If you could do any other job, what would it be? • Pink – Tell us a fun fact! • Brown – If you won the lottery what would you do first? 30 Confidential - do not distribute
People Mapping 31 Confidential - do not distribute
“Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world” Matilda Wormwood 32 Confidential - do not distribute
Expressive Opportunity to get creative juices running 33 Confidential - do not distribute
Let’s Draw 1. Give everyone a piece of A3 paper, and put out pens (of various colours) on the table. 2.Ask each of them to draw the last iteration • How did they feel? • What was achieved? • What was a challenge? • What did they wish happened? 34
Twitter Retro 1. Ask the team to write one ‘tweet’ per post-it note and stick them on the wall. The tweet should be short and can contain @ or #. 2. The team can then review other peoples tweets and add hearts, retweet symbol or comment. 3. Find the most popular tweets and discuss them as a group. 35 Confidential - do not distribute
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Walt Disney 36 Confidential - do not distribute
Focussed When there is a particular problem you are trying to solve 37 Confidential - do not distribute
Retros Against Humanity Retros 1. Print out the cards suited to your teams current challenges! Against 2. Give each team member a pen and post- Humanity it notes. Hold up a card and ask each to fill in the gap. 3. Go round the room and share ideas, take it in turns to pick the ‘best’ answer and discuss. 38 Confidential - do not distribute
If only we had We would be so ______ has been known about an absolute star much better if _______ sooner. we would just this sprint. _________. 39
The secret to The secret to a ________ is more offensive than a ruining a story kick ass stand is _________. up is _________. cold, rainy, windy Monday morning. 40
Agile Self-Assessment Taking key agile principles, ask the team to rate themselves - • Green: We are great at this • Amber: We do this, but not very well • Red: We don’t even attempt this Discuss areas of improvement and update the chart, taking a photo each time. See how the team progresses, and feels ownership of their destiny! 41 Confidential - do not distribute
Agile Meetings 1. On a whiteboard/large piece of paper, for each meeting draw a horizontal scale or star ratings (1 waste of time, 5 very valuable) 2. Each team member adds a dot vote to the scale, based on their rating for each of these principles. 3. The team discusses each meeting, starting with the lowest score • Why do we think it is low? • How could it we be better? 42 Confidential - do not distribute
User Story Retro 1. Ask the team to bring with them a story which was really effective, and another which made life difficult! 2. In small groups, ask them to come up a list of • Qualities a good story has • Common mistakes made, or things missed 3. Use this to review your definition of ‘ready’ i.e. for a story to be accepted. 43 Confidential - do not distribute
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein 44 Confidential - do not distribute
It is always the same conversation… Well let’s ask different questions? 45
Focus on one problem, and solve it as a team! No magic spell can fix this mess, what’s the point? 46
Well let’s make them more fun! Retros are so boring! 47
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